Irina Lenskiy

(1971-)

Irina started competing internationally in the early
90's for the Ukraine. In 1995 she was part of the Ukrainian 4 x 400
relay team in the European Championship held in Goteborg. The Ukrainian
team placed ninth and narrowly missed the final. Irina's attempts to
become a top 400-meter hurdle runner fizzled over time as she could
not get past a best time of 55.69 achieved in 1996. In 1997 she ran
her best time in a 400-meter race as she clocked in at 52.60.

Irina was an accomplished 400-meter runner in her native
Ukraine but gradually moved to shorter distances after the birth of
her son. Lenskiy immigrated to Israel in 1999 and proceeded to dominate
the female short-distance events in the country. The runner won the
National Championship in the 100-meter dash in 2000 and 2001, the 200-meter
title in 2001, and the 400-meter title in 1999, the 100-meter hurdle
in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. She broke two long standing Israeli
records in the 200-meter event with 23.15, and the 100-meter hurdle
race with 12.80. During her first few years in Israel Irina struggled
to find her international competition niche as she shortened her running
distances. In 2002 she made the semi-finals at the European Championship
as she ran the 100-meter hurdles in 13.05 seconds. In July of that year
she ran her best 100-meter hurdle time in Crete with a nippy 12.80.
In 2003 Lenskiy made the European Championship semi-finals again this
time at 12.89 seconds.

Irina was caught up in controversy recently, after
the Israeli National Championship. She complained that the facilities
were inadequate and the medical staff at the competition was inadequate.
She was later forced to apologize.

Lenskiy ran in heat 1 of the 100-meter hurdles event
in the Athens Games, on August 22, 2004. She finished seventh in her
heat (13.75) and placed 33rd out of 38 contestants.

Lenskiy holds the Israeli records in the 100-meter
hurdles and 200-meter races. She runs for Maccabi Rishon Letzion and
is coached by Phillip Feingold.